Ortiz hurls six shutout innings against Reds

Righthander Russ Ortiz, the front-runner for the fifth spot in the rotation, bounced back well from a poor outing with six scoreless innings against the Cincinnati Reds today.

Six days after giving up three runs on seven hits and three walks over 3 2/3 innings, Ortiz held the Reds to one hit with two strikeouts over six innings at Osceola County Stadium.

“In this game you have to make adjustments,” Ortiz said. “From last start to this start the whole time in between, I was just trying to make adjustments on the things that I needed to. I think most of it was just mental. Last game, I was trying to fix things while trying to get major league hitters outs. That’s too hard to do. I was just working on the things I needed to and just going out there and just focusing on just attacking the zone.”

Ortiz remained confident even when he fell behind.

“I know I can hit the spots, so here it is,” he said. “I think I got two pop ups. It was a major difference as far as the mental part of it, because the physical part is there.”

At this point, it would be surprising if Ortiz weren’t the Astros’ fifth starter.